The major Hollywood studios are heading to the high court in London tomorrow in an attempt to force BT to block access to a website that they believe is distributing pirated content.

The Motion Pictures Association (MPA), which represents six major movie studios including Warner Bros, Twentieth Century Fox, and The Walt Disney Company, wants BT to block access to Newzbin.com, which they allege hosts links to hundreds of illicit copies of movies and music.

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The case represents the first time in Britain that an attempt to force internet service providers to cut off access to websites under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act has been heard in court.

Should the MPA prove successful with the move, it could pave the way for other content owners to force ISPs to tackle websites suspected of piracy.

Around 700,000 members use the Newzbin service, generating over £1 million a year for the website's operators, according to the MPA. Films currently available for download from the site's movies section include recent releases, such as Disney's Tangled and the Warner Bros remake of Arthur.

The MPA said in a statement: "If successful, this case will set a legal precedent and may enable content providers to secure greater co-operation from internet service providers in tackling pirate sites that are focused on infringing copyright on a commercial basis."

This is not the first time the film industry has tried to shut down Newzbin, as last year the high court ordered the site to remove all of its pirated material and pay damages to the studios.

Newzbin Ltd, the company behind the site, went into administration after the ruling, but a clone site subsequently appeared, operating anonymously out of Sweden.

David Puttnam, the president of the UK's Film Distributors' Association, said that it is "simply unacceptable that the high court found Newzbin guilty of infringing copyright and ordered it to stop and within a few weeks a new version appeared on the net."

He added: "This is an important test case which we all hope will help us to prevent theft and infringement online."

BT said in a statement: "We can confirm that we will be appearing in court, following an application for an injunction by members of the MPA. We have no further comment to make at this stage."

BT and fellow ISP TalkTalk have vigorously tried to fight government plans that would make them responsible for tackling persistent copyright infringers under the Digital Economy Act.